PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
97 
language of which is always a safe guide in the interpretation of 
contemporary literature. The mother of Moses having placed 
the infant in the ark of Bulrushes, “ laid it in the Flags by the 
river’s brink,” and the daughter of Pharaoh “saw the ark 
among the Flags.” Job asks, “Can the Flag grow without 
water ? ” and Isaiah draws the picture of desolation when “ the 
brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up, and the 
Reeds and the Flags shall wither.” But in these passages, not 
only is the original word very loosely translated, but the original 
word itself was so loosely used that long ago Jerome had said 
it might mean any marsh plant, quidquid in pcilnde virens nas- 
citur . And in the same way I conclude that when Shakespeare 
named the Flag he meant any long-leaved waterside plant that 
is swayed to and fro by the stream, and that therefore this 
passage might very properly have been placed under Rushes. 
fflaj*. 
What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of Flax? 
Merry Wives, v. 5, 159. 
Beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims 
Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and Flax. 
2 nd Henry VI, v. 2, 54, 
Excellent; it hangs like Flax in a distaff. 
Twelfth Night, i. 3, 108. 
Go thou: I’ll fetch some Flax and white of eggs 
To apply to his bleeding face. 1 — King Lear, iii. 7, 106. 
His beard was as white as snow, 
All Flaxen was his poll.— Hamlet, iv. 5, 195. 
My wife deserves a name 
As rank as any Flax-wench. — Winter’s Tale, i. 2, 276. 
It could 
No more be hid in him, than fire in Flax. 
Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3, 113. 
1 ‘ ‘Juniper . Go get white of egg and a little Flax, and close the breach 
of the head ; it is the most conducible thing that can be.”— Ben Jonson, 
The Case Altered , ii. 4. 
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